Sylvester McCoy goes there and back again with Malta Comics Expo

Sylvester McCoy was a child of the 1960s. He grew up a hippy, and reading Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was like a rite of passage. Even though the role of Bilbo Baggins went to Ian Holm, McCoy didn’t mind. “I was kind of flattered to be thought of almost equal to Ian Holm,” says McCoy. Working as Radagast on the Hobbit meant long hours for McCoy. “The floor was higglty-pigglty,” and after working from 4:30 a.m to 10 p.m., McCoy could hardly walk. He really enjoyed working with the rabbit sledge, which was filmed in a CGI green room. The sledge itself could be dangerous. It was manipulated by stage hands to move up and down. At one point, they removed the padding from the floor so that there would be enough room for the cameraman and a camera to get a shot from the lower angle. McCoy was doing the double takes that he was supposed to do, but he did one too hard and his hands slipped from the reins. He flew back and hit the concrete with his bottom. As his head barely touched the concrete, a stagehand had dived to save McCoy’s head from taking the full brunt of the impact t the cement. McCoy was comfortable with the CGI because he has been working with it since it came out. Ian McKellen had a different reaction. According to McCoy, McKellen said that he “stood there and cried” because acting against a green screen wasn’t acting. McKellan was so glad when McCoy arrived so that he could have someone to act with. Even when McCoy had scenes to shoot that had McKellen off screen, McKellan would stand behind the camera to read his lines, something that the assistant director or someone else would normally do. McCoy’s makeup was mostly hair so it only took about 90 minutes to apply.Read about Sylvester McCoy's acting career panel